By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Sep 15 2003 (IPS)

Two United Nations agencies have geared up to protect children from the harmful effects of the sun’s rays, announcing a collection of educational materials on International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer.

Because their skin is more sensitive, sun exposure, even for short periods, can cause serious sunburn, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

"A single sunburn during childhood can significantly increase risk of developing skin cancer in later life," said Mike Repacholi, head of the WHO’s radiation and health unit.

The WHO and UNEP are leading a campaign to raise awareness, through texts aimed at schoolchildren, about the dangers posed by the sun’s ultraviolet rays, announced the U.N. agencies on Tuesday, marking International Ozone Day.

The educational materials are intended to help schools teach children about the potentially harmful effects of exposure to the sun, the need to wear appropriate protective clothing and hats, and to encourage children to play in shaded areas.

The efforts of the international community to preserve the stratospheric layer of ozone gas, which protects the earth from excessive ultraviolet radiation, are beginning to produce results.

"The majority of person’s lifetime UV (ultraviolet radiation) exposure is received before age 18… And it’s a natural thing that children want to play in the sun," said Repacholi.

"As ozone layer continuous to deplete over time, the intensity of the UV which reaches the Earth will continue to increase, until the ozone layer is stabilised," said the WHO expert.

In addition to the health and environmental arguments in favour of protecting the ozone layer, the organisers of the information campaign say there are important economic motives: It costs just a few cents to teach children about UV exposure, but it costs millions to treat skin cancer.

The UNEP is monitoring compliance with the programmes of the international treaties aimed at eliminating the production and use of ozone-depleting substances, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used as industrial refrigerants and in aerosols, and the pesticide methyl bromide.

UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer says the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is producing the hoped-for results, but that developing countries need to phase out these chemicals and achieve the targets established in the agreement.

Specifically, developing countries need to focus on eliminating the use of methyl bromide as an agricultural pesticide and they must halt illegal trade in CFCs.

According to the Montreal Protocol’s timeline, the industrialised countries had to eliminate CFCs by 1995, and methyl bromide by 2005. Developing countries have until 2010 and 2015, respectively.

Heileman said estimates put the number of non-melanoma skin cancer cases at two to three million worldwide, adding that UV exposure causes and accelerates the development of cataracts in the eyes.

More than 130,000 new cases of melanoma are reported around the world and some 66,000 people die from skin cancer every year.

"If we did not have the Montreal Protocol, the estimates are that we would have approximately 113 million more cases of eye cataracts… about 29 million more cases of non-melanoma cancer… and 1.5 million more cases of melanoma cancer," said Heileman.

Regarding the geographical factors of UV radiation exposure, Eva Rehjuess, of the WHO’s occupational and environmental health unit, pointed out that skin cancer is a greater danger in the industrialised countries.

But vulnerability to cataracts is independent of skin type, she said, and the children in developing countries are at greater risk.

In this sense, "awareness about the health consequences of solar radiation is equally important for developing and developed countries," she said.

"The initial sign that the effort (to preserve the ozone layer) is starting to have an effect is the observation of reduced levels of chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere," said UNEP official Heileman.

"However, because of the long life of those substances, they migrate to the stratosphere (10 to 50 km above the earth’s surface) and, interacting with the sun," they begin converting ozone into oxygen.

So far, the reduction of these two ozone-depleting chemicals has been recorded only in the lower layers of the atmosphere, whereas in the stratosphere, there has not been a significant decline.

According to measurements made two weeks ago, as the southern hemisphere spring arrives and the period when the so-called ozone hole appears over Antarctica begins, the area of thinning in the ozone layer covered 20 million square km, nearing the maximum size reached in recent years.

It will be another 40 years before effects of recent efforts by the international community to restore the ozone layer will be evident, noted Heileman.

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